Los Angeles Food, Events and Nightlife Blog

Sam Nazarian

Consider a ski resort town in the Sierras built on local pride – a bevy of locally-owned restaurants and bars intermixed with a couple imported chain restaurants and brand shops. A couple. Though not close by any sane standards – a minimum 5-hour road travel or 1-hour flight – Mammoth is to Southern California what Lake Tahoe is to Northern (that is, with a 1-resort monopoly). One thing is for certain, however, and that would be the recent strong push to make Mammoth Village a legitimate…well, village. Plagued by vacancies within its Intrawest-managed store fronts until recently, Mammoth Village and its dwellers can now rejoice at the recent opening of Starbucks, for example – joining the ranks of Ben & Jerry’s, Pita Pit, Ye Ole Dubliner, Lakanuki, Sushi Rei, Quicksilver and more. The Village would go where Hennessey’s (closed) could not.